Alright. Better strap in, because it's going to be a long one:
- Open your terminal and start working.
- Run
lsusb -v
, which should give you an output similar to this:
06:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188FTV
Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
Kernel modules: iwlwifi
- Since the adapter is an USB adapter, you run
dmesg | grep usbcore
as root, which should give you an output similar to this usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl8188
.
- Check if the wireless interface has been created using
ip link
. If the adapter has been created the name of the adapter should start with a 'w' (e.g. wlan0
; wlp2s0
).
- Use the
ip link set [YOUR INTERFACE] up
command to bring up your interface (e.g. ip link set wlan0 up
. If you get an error message, please provide it by commenting the answer I'm providing you.
- Check the kernel messages if the firmware is being loaded with
dmesg | grep firmware
, which should yield something like this:
[ 7.148259] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: loaded firmware version 39.30.4.1 build 35138 op_mode iwldvm
- If there is no erroneous output to the command in step 6, use
dmesg | grep [FIRMWARE]
(in the case of step 6, it was iwlwifi
. Again, yours may be different).
- If the kernel module was loaded properly, you can proceed to the next step in the Arch wiki (#Utilities)
I checked the support from the Kernel wiki and I suspect that your device may not be supported.
Again, I suggest following the Arch wiki - Wireless network configuration, which provides a fantastic way to solve your issue. This goes for general Linux issues as well. It is very easy to follow and it is aimed at beginners and proficient users alike.